Monday, March 09, 2009

Fitness 101

Ok, just to confirm to ya’ll and myself…running on a treadmill and running outside ARE COMPLETELY different…Why?

Well on a treadmill your being “propelled” forward to run and if you’re running outside your propelling yourself/your own body. So if you stop on a treadmill the treadmill keeps going and you find yourself on an episode of Jackass or America’s Funniest…whereas if you run outside and you stop, you literally stop.

I “sort of” already knew this but didn’t realize that it’s much harder to propel yourself. Yeah, my lack of outdoor running this winter turned me into a bit of a softy. I came to the realization yesterday as I thought I could run my usual 3-5 miles outside. I ran about a ½ mile before my knees and ass started to hurt and found my legs starting to buckle a bit. I slowed to a walk and decided to alternate walking/running until reaching my 3 mile mark, then sprinted 3 the blocks home. I easily can run 3-5 miles on a treadmill or elliptical, but running outside, Christ I’m going to have to start all over again! My stamina is good but I can’t seem to propel myself forward without help. My time sucks as well. It takes me about an hour to run 4- 4 ½ miles outside but on the treadmill I can run 5 miles in the same amount of time.

Besides my diet has sucked off/on since Thanksgiving and I know I keep mentioning that I have to clean it up a bit I can’t seem to do it. I get too tempted to drink when I go out, eat pizza over my b-day, or load my salad with ranch dressing at work, not to mention McDonald’s which is a HUGE weakness for me... I need to go back to my “Caveman” diet until I get back to goal.